Ice bagging machines, ice vending machines, and ice bagging and vending machines are not new. Many different forms of these machines are in commercial use or have been suggested by the prior art.
Often, an individual purchasing a bag of ice cubes finds that the ice cubes have frozen together, so that instead of finding individual ice cubes within the bag, the individual finds one or more large masses of ice. This is probably the major shortcoming of bagging ice cubes and then storing the bagged ice cubes.
Most ice cube vending machines, such as the ones found in hotels and motels, are arranged for the user to place a bucket or bag in a dispensing compartment and hold the bucket or bag as ice cubes are delivered. Typically, the user has only a short distance to go, such as back to a room or to a car, so that sealing or closing the bag or ice cube container to prevent spillage of the ice cubes is not an important factor.
Various attempts have been made in the past to provide ice cube bagging and vending machines which bag ice cubes only on demand. In this way, ice cubes are not stored in a bag and subject to the formation of masses of ice in the bag. However, the ice cube bagging and vending machines suggested previously fail to satisfy concurrently the requirements of highly sanitary conditions, dispensing accurately metered amounts of ice cubes, and efficient and fault-free operation.